Read the article (or my previous post). Walter Willett. He’s the grand high priest of nutritionism who has set the tone for US public heath policy for decades.
Amphetamine has been around for a long time.
It failed to sort Elvis out.
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They’ve got a new one in clinical trials. It’ll probably be more profitable than boring old amphetamines.
The package finally arrived. Intact and as advertised.
1. Delivery process: It took a few days even after the import ban was lifted. The timeline is:
5/3: ordered and paid for
5/3-4: some inquiries from the company about shipping to Taiwan, namely the address
5/5: shipped with DHL
5/6: EZ Way request completed; leaves Germany
5/7: arrives in Taipei via Seoul
5/8: processed for clearance in TW
5/9: DHL rep is like "oops, you can’t import that without a license. Minimum 2 months wait + 2,000 NTD + 200 NTD per day after 15 days if they need to hold it for me)
5/9-10: tried to contact Taiwan’s FDA, they never answered the phone, eventually on the 10th just told DHL to send the package back
5/11: @slawa informs on the new decision to allow imports for personal use.
5/11: immediately call DHL and ask them to keep the package and keep me updated next to the progress. They call me back to let me know they will hold on to the package and wait for the official documentation from the government.
5/11-16: bureaucratic limbo (“Customs clearance status updated.” Announcements at least once a day.)
5/16: was told I needed to pay import charges of about 300 NTD. Paid immediately.
5/17: package arrived at noon
*All in all, apart from the fiasco involved with the bureaucracy here in Taiwan, the package could have potentially arrived within a week.
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Sales company: German (available upon PM, but other sources can be found). I’ve also ordered from a company in Portugal (before I realized the law was maximum 100 kits and one time NOT maximum 100 kits per time
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Manufacturer is Chinese (Hangzhou Clongene Biotech Co., Ltd.). Most are. This brand is “Clungene”.
- Approved by Australia (https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-rapid-antigen-self-tests-are-approved-australia), as well as the EU (https://ec.europa.eu/health/system/files/2022-05/covid-19_rat_common-list_en.pdf), the UK and Hong Kong
- some support from the scientific literature (Updated Clinical Evaluation of the CLUNGENE® Rapid COVID-19 Antibody Test - PMC)
- Some reports not to trust the “saliva” kits (i.e., the Philippines). The ones I’ve ordered allow for nasal or oral swabs.
- this particular brand had made news locally when an international businessman had announced that he could find test kits for less than a Euro overseas. This is still cost a bit of a controversy, but there’s support for this. (https://udn.com/news/story/7325/6282689), although the contacts seems to be mostly making 陳時中 look bad or the prices of test kits in Taiwan seem expensive)
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Price: overall, less than 80 per kit, more than half of it shipping.
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Background: The test gets I bought were for donation purposes only. The remote elementary school was very grateful for the kits that I provided. As my reputation was on the line, I did my best to ensure that the kits that I ordered were off decent quality. I didn’t focus on the price, since there were other brands that were much cheaper. I selected this brand particularly because it had been approved in several countries and had some journal articles published that had demonstrated its efficacy.
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Miscellaneous: I just bought five more kits of Panbio (locally promoted) for my personal use. The cost was 180 NTD, which seems quite reasonable compared to the previous prices (300 to 400). I could have bought up to 15 or 20 more, but I decided to limit myself to the quota previously stipulated by our government. There could well have been other people who were in need of these kits.
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My possible screw-up: after finding out that we were allowed to import kits, I very briefly scanned the announcement. Seemed to say that we were limited to 100 kits per purchase. I didn’t realize that it actually said we were limited to one purchase, and that this one purchase should include 100 or less kits. So, I have 75 + 50 more ordered under my same name. Who knows what will happen, but doesn’t seem promising.
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Ask the shipper to change the name with the shipping company. I’m not sure if they can change the name remotely, but they can change the value. I had something shipped insured for US$1000 and the shipping company said I could either pay 5000nt or ask the shipper to change the value to $999. Of course I did the latter.
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Good thinking. I did ask for two name changes: 1) use my middle name, 2) use my Chinese name.
2 issues:
- the EZ Way verification will be under the same ID
- I don’t like disobeying the law. Other schools have asked me to import kits (donations), but the government will certainly be suspicious of the large quantities (reasonably so).
Has anyone had any luck going to gyms with only two shots, and the second shot being within the last month?
I can’t get the booster as I just had the second shot. But gyms require three shots.
Are they smart enough to understand that a second shot within the last six months = same protection level as a booster?
My experience has been that it’s three pricks or you can’t come in. I had to download that stupid bloody contact app to boot.
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you seem to be making the assumption that this has anything to do with “protection”. They’re probably just following what they’ve been told to do by some penpusher at the CDC who decides by decree what vaccines do or don’t do.
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Sigh. In smarter jurisdictions its if your second jab is over six months ago you need the third shot.
Thanks a lot for the update and all the details!
Luckily here the initial raids on pharmacies seem to have died down, using the information on https://selftest.mowd.tw/ I was able to figure out which pharmacies near me where most likely to have stock and when. As a general rule in my area the pharmacies close to MRT stations sold out very fast, particularly the ones which received their stock in the morning. There are the odd exceptions which somehow seem to be unpopular places locally that seem to take half a day to sell their entire stock and even carry some to the next day. I purchased 5 today using my even NHI number without any queuing or hassle.
One of my local pharmacies, receives stock around 2.30pm and doesn’t usually sell out until around 8pm and has carried over stock a few times
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My guess is Taiwan will be welcome.
The ultimate goal will be to find a way to have it sign up to the new proposed WHO treaty, which would allow the WHO control.
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Taiwan will swallow anything to get into WHO.
Next thing it needs to figure out is how to bend over for WEF.
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Yes, I think that is true. So Sad!
Would be great if Taiwan could say “Thanks, but No Thanks” to any invite to join WHO.
Of course will not happen.
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To join the WHO?
To observe at the WHO?
Beijing has made it clear that it opposes both. Why are you so confident?
Guy
My wife doesn’t want me to go out for drinks as she thinks the risk is too great (not so much for me, but bringing it home to our kid). I wonder how people feel about the risk of socializing (in maskless, indoor environments) right now:
- Yes, it’s fine
- Not worth it right now
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Perhaps try to find a place where you can sit outdoors, where there is better air flow?
That could be one compromise.
Guy
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Yeah, something like this.
Socializing in an indoor crowded bar, not worth it. But I’m biased because I avoid that anyway!
Socializing in a fairly big indoor space that’s not crowded, I think that’d be OK. (What with COVID I suspect a lot of normally crowded spaces are like this anyway.)
Sitting on a balcony or outdoors, totally fine.
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I’m tempted to say that everyone will get it and kids don’t normally have a hard time so carry on.
However, I would skip it. Why?
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being stuck at home for a week sucks and they will probably relax the rules more in the future so getting it later has its advantages.
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if your kid does have a bad time, do you really want to be visiting a doctor now? Long waiting times, mandatory pcr tests…… in two months, the procedure will be streamlined.
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you want your kid vaccinated, right? Well, you should try to be careful before that happens.
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having a sick kid sucks. Being the reason why the kid is sick after the wife has warned you about going out………you will hear about that forever.
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